Frozen foods and dairy products refrigerator



Much 21, 1950 v. P. WARRENJI 2,501,459

FROZEN FOODS AND DAIRY PRODUCTS REFRIGERATOR Filed- Aug. 16,- 1948 ATTNEYJ Patented Mar. 2.1, 1950 FROZEN FOODS AND DAIRY `PRODUCTS REFRIGERATOB Virgil P. Warren, II, Atlanta, Ga., assignor to The Warren Company, Inc., Atlanta, Ga'., a corporation of Georgia Application August 16, 1948, Serial No. 44,424

9 Claims. (CL i2- 895) This inventionL relates to a refrigerator, more specifically, to a refrigerator having la dairy compartment and an open frozen food compartment arranged in a manner so as to effectively display the products contained therein and to make them readily accessible.

Display type refrigerators having an open frozen food compartment with an inclined mirror suspended thereabove to facilitate viewing of the products in the compartment are well known in the art. An outstanding disadvantage of such refrigerators is that the mirror, either because of its direct connection to wall or partition portions of the refrigerator or because of the circulation of cold air from the freezer compartment in its vicinit or both, becomes frosted with condensed moisture which, of course, reduces the reflective value thereof making it diicult or impossible to view the contents of the freezer compartment. Another outstanding disadvantage of common types of multi-compartment refrigera tors, particularly those with closed cabinet por tions above an open freezer compartment is that they are not readily accessible by the user, requiring over-reaching to gain access to the contents of the freezer compartment.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel multi-compartment refrigerator including an open type frozen food compartment and a closed dairy compartment thereabove ar ranged in a manner so that both compartments readily display the goods contained therein and are readily accessible to the user.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a multi-compartment display type refrigerator useful in stores and the like having an upper dairy compartment with horizontally sliding doors and which is inset from a permanently open front wall and a lowermost open frozen food compartment together with an inclined mirror supported intermediate said compartments for permitting viewing of the contents of the frozen food compartment.

Another object of the present invention is to provide, in a refrigerator. an inclined mirror, suspended above an open type freezer compartment in a manner that it will facilitate viewing the contents of the compartment and to provide suitable apertures or cutouts in the rear wall portion of the refrigerator directly behind the mirror to allow warm air to enter therethough from the surrounding atmosphere to form a blanket above the cold air in the frozen food compartment so as to counteract cold air tending to rise from the freezer compartment andfor Vstoring different types of frozen foods.

2 prevent condensation on the mirror that woul impair its reflective characteristics.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following specifica-I tion, taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a front or elevational view of a multi-compartment refrigerator embodying the present invention. with parts shown broken away to more clearly illustrate the interior construction; and,

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken along lines 2--2 of Figure 1.

Referring more particularly to the figures, numeral I generally denotes a multi-compartment refrigerator having at the lower portion thereof an open top type of chest or compartment 2 for frozen foods. A plurality of spaced transverse vertical freezing plates 3 are provided to divide the frozen food compartment into separate bins A serpentine refrigerator coil'or passageway 4 is provided in each freezing plate for conducting a suitable refrigerating fluid for refrigerating the frozen food compartment.

At the upper end of the refrigerator there is provided a dairy compartment 5 comprising a horizontal floor portion 6 and a vertical front wall portion I in which front wall portion-are mounted a plurality of horizontally slidable doors B. The dairy-compartment is refrigerated by means of refrigerating coil 9, such as one vof the cross-fin type enclosed within a ventilated casing l0, the lower portion of which casing is open so that cold air may be circulated therethrough by means of an electric fan il, there being an opengrille l2 in the casing immediately adacent the blades of the fan. A light i3, preferably of the fluorescent type, is mounted in front of the doors 8 of 'the dairy compartment.

A more important feature of the invention is the disposition of the dairy compartment to permit ready access to it and particularly to the refrigerating compartment. The dairy compartment is inset with respect to the front wall i4 of the refrigerator. Furthermore, the front wall has a permanent opening I5 extending throughout the entire width of the refrigerator and a substantial portion of its height so that persons may lean into the opening I5 and help themselves to foods stored in the frozen food compartment.

A mirror I6 is supported in an inclined manner by brackets I1. The brackets are few in number and small in cross section so as to occupy an extremely small portion of the space surrounding the perimeter of the mirror-thereby allowing free circulation of warm outside air about the perimeter, the circulation of which air will be described more fully hereinafter.

In order to prevent condensation or frosting.

of the mirror as the result of contact with cold air from the frozen food compartment. slots or cut outs, such as I8, I! and 20, are provided in the rear wail of the refrigerator, immediately behind the mirror Il for allowing warm air from the surrounding outside atmosphere to -be introduced therethrough. 'Ihiswarm outside air will enter in the direction indicated by the arrows and ilow along the rear wall of the mirror. It will also'be noted that warm outside air will also enter the front opening i lof the refrigerator. Thus a blanket of warm air will surround the mirror which will counteract the tendency of cold air to rise from the freezer compartment which otherwise would condense on the mirror. It will be noted further that warm air introduced through the front opening I5 will flow through the space between the top edge of the mirror and the door portion 6 of the dairy compartment as well as directly to the space above the freezer compartment to form a blanket of warm air behind and in front of the mirror as well as at the top of the freezer compartment (inasmuch as some of this warm air will iiow through the space between the lower edge of the mirror and the rear wall) The sides of the mirror are likewise spaced from the refrigerator sidewalls. Thus warm air may flow about the entire perimeter of the mirror and thereby prevent dow of cold air by convection and resulting condensation on the mirror.

If desired, the side wall portions of the refrigerator behind the mirrors may also be slotted to allow warm air to be introduced therethroughto the space behind the mirror and thereby provide a greater blanket of warm air behind the mirror to counteract the rise of cold air from the freezer compartment.

In some cases, instead of providing cut-outs or slots in the rear wall of the refrigerator, it may be sulcient merely to provide coils behind the mirror which conduct refrigerating iluid in a warm condition, such as coils of the hot gas line normally maintained outside the refrigerator. However, the simplest construction for providing a warm blanket of air in the vicinity of the mirror is that which is shown including slots in the rear wall of the refrigerator behind the mirror.

The refrigerating coils 9 and 4 of the dairy and frozen food cabinets, respectively, may be supplied by refrigerant in any well known manner, such as by a supply line branching into two separate feeding lines each provided with an expansion valve. Inasmuch as a much colder temperature is desired in the frozen food compartment, especially since such compartment is permanently open at the top, it is desirable to provide an expansion valve of larger capacity for the line which feeds such compartment, as compared to that which supplies the dairy compartment refrigerating coil.

While a dairy compartment is shown, it will be apparent that it may be eliminated in some cases, the top wall of the refrigerator occupying the space occupied by oor 6.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a compact, efiioient and multicompartment refrigerator cabinet which effectively displays the contents of both the dairy compartment and frozen food compartment, the

dairy compartment being inset with respect to a permanently open front wall so as to permit easy access .to the frozen food compartment, and wherein a mirror is provided above the frozen food compartment to permit viewing of its contents and which is supported in a manner to provide free circulation of air about its perimeter, the rear wall of the refrigerator being slotted so that warm air is introduced so as to surroundthe mirror thereby preventing condensation of moisture thereon from cold air rising from the food freezing compartment, thus permanently maintaining the full reflective value of such mirror. l

While there is illustrated and described a speciilc embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only and that various changes and modifications may be made within the spirit and purview of the invention and within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

l.v In combination, a refrigerator having a normally closed cabinet disposed at the top thereof, a frozen food cabinet disposed at the lower end thereof, and having a permanently open top, a mirror supported in an inclined manner relative said open top and in the space between said cabinets, and means adjacent said mirror for maintaining the air immediately surrounding the mirror at a temperature substantially higher than the air rising from said frozen food cabinet so as to counteract such rise and minimize condensation on said mirror.

2. A refrigerator comprising, in combination, a casing, a frozen food compartment having an open top and located in the lower portion of said casing, a normally closed dairy products compartment lccated in the upper portion of said casing in inset relationship with the front wall thereof, said front wall having a permanent opening to give access to both of said compartments, and a mirror supported in an inclined manner immediately above said frozen food compartment to lpermit viewing of the contents thereof through said front wall opening.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein the rear wall of said-casing is provided with an opening immediately behind said mirror for permitting introduction of warm air from the surrounding atmosphere to provide a warm air blanket in the vicinity of the mirror for counteracting the flow of cold air thereto, thereby preventing condensation or frosting on said mirror by said cold air.

4. A multiple compartment refrigerator, comprising a casing having an open top frozen food compartment in the lower portion thereof, including a plurality of spaced parallel freezing plates for forming separate bins within said compartment, a refrigerating cabinet located in the upper portion of said casing, said upper compartment having a front wall with horizontally sliding doors, which wail is inset in relationship to the front wall of said refrigerator casing, said last mentioned front wall having a permanent opening of larger area than the total area of said doors for ready access to said horizontally sliding doors and to said frozen food compartment, a mirror supported immediately above said frozen food compartment, the top and bottom edges of said mirror being spaced from the bottom wall of said upper compartment and the rear wail of said refrigerator, respectively, and an aperture in the rear wall of said refrigerator, establishing' communication between the` space behind saidmirror with atmosphere, for allowing warm air from the surrounding atmosphere to contact the rear face of said mirror to raise the temperature above the dew point to prevent condensation on the front of said mirror.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said mirror is spaced from the side walls of said refrigerator casing and wherein brackets are provided for supporting said mirror in inclined, spaced relationship with the top of said frozen food compartment with a minimum obstruction to the flow of air along the entire perimeter thereof.

6. In combination, a refriserator casing having an upper refrigerating compartment including a refrigerating coil, said compartment being inset in relation to the front wall of said refrigerator, a lower refrigerating compartment including a refrlgerating coil and having a permanently open top, a mirror supported in inclined spaced relationship with respect to the top of said lower compartment, and a plurality of slots extending through the rear wall of said refrigerator immediately adjacent said mirror for allowing introduction of warm air of the surrounding atmosphere, a permanent opening in the front wall of said refrigerator for allowing additional warm air into the space between said upper and lower compartments so as to counteract flow of cold air from said refriserating compartments and thereby prevent condensation of moisture contained therein on said mirror.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein bracket means are provided so as to support said mirror in spaced relationship relative the lower wall of said upper reirigerating cabinet and the rear wall of said refrigerator as well as the inner side walls of the refrigerator to allow free now of warm air about said mirror. said bracket being 0f relatively thin cross-section so as to present a minimum obstruction to the now of said warm air.

$.Arefrigeratorcomprisingacasinghaving afrontwamandtopandlidewallsutsndinga forwardly to the plane of the front wall, a refrigerator compartment. located in the lower portion of said casing having an open top extending to said front wall, a second refrigerated compartment located within the upper portion of said casing in inset relationship with the plane of the front wall of said casing, normally closed doors in the front of said second compartment, the front wall of said casing having a permanent opening extending above and below the bottom of said second compartment to give customer access to both said compartments.

9. A refrigerator comprising a casing having insulated front, back, top. bottom and end walls. a refrigerated open topped compartment in the lower portion of said casing bounded by said front, back, bottom and end walls, an intermediate wall above the open top of said compartment extending forwardly from said back wall and between said end walls having its front end terminating rearwardly of the plane of the front of said casing, a second compartment 1ocated in the upper portion of said casing, of which said intermediate wall forms the bottom. the front wall of said second compartment including sliding doors, said second compartment being inset with respect to the plane of the front wall of said casing, said front wall of the casing naving an opening extending above and below the bottom of said second compartment to give customer access to both said compartments.

VIRGIL P. WARREN, 1I.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,156,668 Staggs May 2, 1939 2,201,696 Lucas May 21, 1940 2,441,463 Achs May 11, 1946 2,443,787 Earle June 22, 1948 2,447,699 Hardin Aug. 29. 1948 2,491,790 Spiro Bent. 13, 1949 

